| From Park to Drive | |
| Caution. Following the recommendations on this page will lead to hard work. If you are looking for easy ways to develop motivation, you can easily find books about that. You can easily read them. Just bookmark this page in case the easy reading does no easily get you want. So you can easily come back here and see if hard work takes you further than easy reading. | |
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How do people get motivated?
That's the first problem right there. Abstract language. Abstraction informs. Abstraction educates. Abstraction does not motivate. |
Concretizer Follow-Thru Self-Directing |
| Concretize. Abstract doesn't tell you anything if you don't know what it means in the concrete world of reality. So let's get concrete You say people lack motivation when they claim to have a goal but you don't see them put much effort into reaching that goal. | When is a goal not a goal? |
| Look beyond the words. Then you will notice that people who supposedly lack motivation are putting a lot of effort into something. Just not the long-term goals they speak of. They are probably putting the effort into concrete, short-term goals like winning a game. If winning that game were a step toward the long term-goal, you would never think of a lack of motivation. | Your brain modules already know your short-term goals. |
| Motivation is connecting long-term goals to short-term actions. So that's how people get motivated. They make plans to keep a connection between their long-term goals and what they do today. | The long and short of goals |
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Abstract advice. Doesn't tell me what to do.
And so you are not ready to do anything. That's exactly what it means to
have a long-term goal not connected to short-term actions. So now I
give you some short-term actions that add up to a long term goal.
You can still choose whether you want to do this or not. You can still choose to seek motivation toward that long term-goal. Or not.
Luke Skywalker: I'll try. But now you can't treat motivation as a condition. You have have to treat it as a choice. |
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Short term actions to get to a long-term goal |
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1. lay out concrete a plan. Yes, that is
hard. But not nearly as hard as carrying out the plan. So if planning
looks too hard, give up now. Look for something easier. And if
something easier is what you want, make a plan for finding that.
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1.1 Suppose my goal is to help somebody else get
motivated? Start laying out plans for that somebody else. Right in
front of them. Semi-structured brainstorming is a convenient way to do
that.
And, please, don't tell them they should follow you plan. Invite them to show you how to do it better. |
Semi-Structured Brainstorming |
| 1.2 Suppose I don't know enough to lay out a plan. Then your goal is to explore until you find what you need to know to lay out a plan. | Curious |
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1.3 Suppose I can't find what I need to know to lay out a plan. You have
two choices: <> Make a trial run. <> Look for another goal. |
Trial Run Want List |
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2. Choose. Consciously.
Deliberately. In full knowledge of what you are doing. Here are your
choices: <> Go for it with all your strengths. <> Do another trial run. <> Look for another goal. <> Put it off till it is too late to do it. <> See if you can find any other choices on offer. |
Deciding, Choosing, Self-Direction |
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The Thinkerer
05/13/2008 Copyright (c) D. F. Dansereau & S. H. Evans |
Goals | ||
| Famous fables | |||